The original description of Behçet’s syndrome included recurring genital and oral ulcerations and relapsing uveitis. This disease is also associated with cutaneous hypersensitivity; 60%–70% of patients will develop a sterile pustule with an erythematous margin within 48 hours of an aseptic needle prick. It is more common in Japan, Korea, and the Eastern Mediterranean area, and affects primarily young adults. The …
It’s not time to panic. The latest April 14, 2013 update on the H7N9 Avian Influenza A outbreak from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports 11 additional cases of human infection have been laboratory confirmed. Three cases are from Shanghai, two from Jiangsu, four from Zhejiang and the other two from Henan. There are two more deaths, and …
Book Review: “Be Fruitful: The Essential Guide to Maximizing Fertility and Giving Birth to a Healthy Child,” by Victoria Maizes MD of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. Many challenges face parents wishing to successfully conceive and give birth to a healthy child today. Drawing on her expertise in integrative medicine, Dr. Victoria Maizes integrates science with traditional wisdom to …
Public Health Agency of Canada: February 15, 2013 US Centers for Disease Control: March 7, 2013 Update: A total of 14 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection have been identified, with 8 deaths. There seems to be an association with recent travel to the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan) and influenza A (H1N1) co-infection. Patients presented with lower respiratory infections. …
You sprain your ankle badly, and aren’t sure if it’s broken or not. It’s 6pm on a Friday evening, so you head to the ER to have it x-rayed. At triage you ask “how much might this cost me?” Typically, nobody working in the hospital at that moment will be able to even take a guess. A new study out …
Required reading for everyone who lives in the United States, or who is thinking about doing so: Stephen Brill delivered an amazing piece of investigative journalism last week on the U.S. health care system in Time Magazine. Hopefully everyone will read it before they develop a serious illness, but regardless it lays bare some of the reasons why the health care …
I often see patients who are concerned about gluten sensitivity or celiac disease. Indeed, that is a common problem and many people do feel better if they removed processed foods, and gluten in particular, from their diet. The problem is that it matters how you go about investigating your body’s response to gluten. What is celiac disease? Celiac disease is …
Excerpt from an article on The Medtech Pulse blog: “Many of the people who come to my office…have come because modern medicine has failed them in some way, or they have used up its power to help them and they know not what else to do.” —Rachel Naomi Remen, MD A couple of weeks ago, at Stanford Medicine X, Paul Abramson MD …
I gave a talk on implementing self tracking in my medical practice at the Medicine X 2012 Conference at Stanford on September 28, 2012. A bit of perspective on the health care system and its shortcomings provided an introduction to a new model of care involving a Quant Coach as an integral member of a medical team, with the patient …
Many patients come to me on vitamin D supplements, and there have been a lot of opinion pieces for and against vitamin D supplementation lately. Without getting into the data too deeply, it seems likely that vitamin D3 supplemention is probably going to turn out to be beneficial up to a point, but that over-supplementing is probably harmful even before …
